The Lady of Azkaban
by Cahira of the Dawn
Summary: Sirius/Hotaru: She was born in the dungeons of Azkaban, and she shares the power wielded by the dementors. Hotaru is the Lady of Azkaban and Sirius Black must help her reach the light...
1. Chapter One

**The Lady of Azkaban**

**by Cahira of the Dawn**

**AN: *groans* I should so not start another fic! But that's my fatal flaw. If I get an idea then I've just got to post it. I'm way in over my head.** **Ah well, on with the fic anyway...**

**P.S- This is a Sirius/Hotaru fic. I _think _they are an original couple, but if anyone knows stories with that pairing then please tell me. **

**Chapter One: **

My name is Hotaru Tomoe, and I was born in Azkaban.

My first memories are of a dark cell, dimly lit by the flickering glow of torches. I remember the feel of my mother's cold hands against my skin as she pulled me close, shrouding me in her tattered robes. She was trying to hide me away from the dementors. Seeking to keep me hidden from their rasping, hollow jaws and gnarled gray hands. Like every other prisoner she feared them, but I did not. 

I should never have been kept in Azkaban. If the ministry had known that I existed they would have taken me away in an instant. But they did not. My mother, as one of the most dangerous yet unimportant prisoners, was hidden deep in the bowels of the prison. She was never visited by the ministry and they never realized that she was pregnant. And who could she have told? The dementors could not speak! How could they pass such a message to an official? So she gave birth to me and brought me up in the darkness of the dungeons. 

I never feared the dementors. They could not harm me, so, as I was of no use to them, they left me alone to do as I wished. For some reason they found that they could steal nothing from my soul. Maybe it was because I was born with their power all around me, but I could use the power of fear and misery just as they could. I had no need to feed from it, but I could wield it like a weapon. I didn't think I was strange. It was just something that I could do.

When I was nine years old I made my first friend in the prison. Mother was already getting ill by then, and she no longer tried to stop me wandering around. Serenity was fourteen and full of happiness. I'd never seen someone as... luminous as her in my life. She bright and bubbly with laughter in her soul. She never stopped talking and singing away. I thought she was just magical. 

"What's it like outside Azkaban Serenity?" I leaned through the bars of her cell and took her hand. "Is it like here?"

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, "Its beautiful out there! All bright and colorful! You would like all the people Hotaru. They talk and laugh just like I do."

"What are colors like?" I had never seen that much color. Azkaban was mostly gray and black. 

"You don't know what colors are? Your a strange girl Hotaru." She pulled of her brooch and handed it to me. "These are colors Hotaru. Aren't they pretty?"

I looked at her brooch in wonderment. It was pink and yellow with silver swirls all around the edge. The jewel in the center was the loveliest though. It glowed with all the colors of the rainbow as it shimmered under the faint light. 

"Its lovely Serenity. So lovely..."

"Do you wan to keep it Hotaru?"

I looked up, astonished. "You'd really let me keep it? Really?!"

"Of course." She smiled sadly, "Keep it safe, won't you Hotaru?"

Serenity began to change after that. It wasn't a fast change, but slowly, day by day, she was becoming more like the other prisoners. Sad, lonely and broken...

One day I came to her cell, only to find her gone. There was no trace of her left. Nothing to mark the passing of a special friend. Even as I stood and stared at the empty room, tears began to trickle down my face. I knew what happened when prisoners vanished from their cells. They had gone mad. They had died. And the dementors had taken them away. There was an ache inside me that threatened to turn my silent tears into full blown wails. 

I decided then, that no one else would worm their way into my heart. I was a child of Azkaban and I knew that nothing lasted long in this place. Nothing. No one.

That fact was proved only a few months later. My mother's illness became worse. The depression and solitude finally got the better of her need to protect me. She died, and I was finally all alone. 

I was a child of Azkaban and I froze my heart to love. 

That is, until he came. When I was fourteen years old... 


	2. Chapter Two

**The Lady of Azkaban**

**by Cahira of the Dawn**

**AN: Thanks to all who reviewed! I know there are a lot of unanswered questions, but everything will make sense in time. Trust me on this ^_^ Now onto the story! **

The ministry officials came almost every day during the first few months of his imprisonment. I hid deeper within Azkaban where I hope they would not find me. But sometimes, when curiosity got the better of me, I would slink into upper levels to watch them. It didn't take long for me hate them.

They were fat, pompous old men. Men ruled by their greed for power and money. I knew they fought some sort of evil being, but it almost seemed like their enemy had a reason to fight them. They were so blind, so stupid! They were the people who had locked sweet, gentle Serenity away from her color filled world. They were the cause of my mother's death and Serenity's. I hated them for that, and for making me suffer the life I had lived.

Serenity once live in a world of light. I was unfit to approach it...

During the night - or at least - what I guessed was night, the officials left. It was during those times that I watched him. I had no reason to talk to him. I wanted no friends, no companions. Yet he fascinated me somehow. There was an aura about him that none of the other prisoners possessed. He was calm yet angry. Young yet old. And most importantly of all, he wasn't mad. 

There was a strange comfort in watching him. His quiet endurance of his fate, his efforts to block out the dementors search for fear: I understood it. I knew there was more to this man than met the eye. 

Then one night, I learnt one of his secrets.

I went to his cell, just as usual. I expected to find him staring into space, as he often did when he should have been resting. But he was gone. The cell was dark and cold. There was no human life, no shadowed figure alone in his prison. Just gray dank darkness. 

"No..." I whispered, "Not again..."

I cared. I couldn't pretend any longer. I never needed to talk to him. He was a friend to me just by being there. I was alone again. Why did I keep _caring_?!

"You can't be gone!" I cried, "Its just not fair!"

Then out of the shadows it began to _move. _I stared in surprise as a large black dog slunk out of the darkness. His dark eyes regarded me for a moment, before his whole shape began to melt away. 

And then, before me stood the man the officials called Black. 

"Who are you?" he demanded. "Why were you watching me?" His dark eyes flashed ominously. 

I frowned. This wasn't how I had expected our first conversation to begin. But then, I hadn't thought we would ever talk in the first place.

"I am Hotaru." I stated, "And you are Black."

"_Sirius _Black."

I shrugged, "What your name is doesn't matter to me." 

I turned to walk away, but I stopped as he said, "What are you doing out of your cell?" 

That made me angry. I was no prisoner. I was free within these walls. Azkaban was my _home, _not my prison! 

"I don't need to be locked up, unlike _some_ people. I'm no murderer, but I guess you are. Your all murderers." I gestured to the other cells. "And your all mad! But I'm not. The dementors can't harm me. I'm not a killer." _And neither was Serenity._

He drew back further into his cell. I had clearly struck a nerve. I wonder what he did? It must have been a truly horrifying act if the number of officials who visited him were anything to go by. 

"I killed no one!" he hissed, "I'm innocent. I would _never_ hurt my friends!" 

His words did not surprise me. People always talked like that. They all claimed they were innocent at first, but it was never true. Yet he sounded so convinced of his own words. So truthful... 

And if anyone could put an innocent man in prison, it would be those bumbling old fools. 

"You don't believe me," he said bitterly, "But what should I expect? The evidence is all there. That's why they locked me up after all." 

Silence. I could already see the depression in his face. The dementors were breaking his soul, and Black would not be able to fight it for long. Not even Serenity had been able to fight forever. 

"Maybe I believe you," I whispered, "Maybe I don't. But never become bitter because of the past. It will only destroy your chances for a future. And..." I hesitated, "And I may visit you sometimes. I might even be your friend if you promise not to give up fighting." 

Then I ran, back down to the cells which had once been my mother's; leaving a bewildered Sirius Black in my wake. 


End file.
